Van Poperin Work Analysis

The math task I'm choosing to analyze student work for was a whole group lesson and group share.  As a class we reviewed the terms: longer, shorter, and about the same.  I had strips of paper we had used in a prior matching lesson (where each of the students was to find a partner that had the same length strip).  I had volunteers come up and tell me which strip of my four was about the same, longer, or shorter.  Then I gave each kindergartener two sticky notes.  I had them go around the room and find one thing that was taller than them (the starting point being the floor) and one thing being shorter than them, drawing a picture of both.  I demonstrated and modeled for them doing it myself.  One of my students interestingly elected to not use the floor as her starting point for measurement or length comparison with her height.  She, unlike all of her peers, chose to compare her body height with a poster on the wall (which she told us was shorter than her) and the American flag (which was taller than her).  When I consider how Kiara got to these conclusions, I realize that she has a very firm and in-depth understanding of length comparison.  It is really an abstract idea for most of my 5-year old students and she could remove herself from the equation and know upon sight that these items would be shorter or longer.  Because of this, I know that my next questions in measurement-specific mathematics lessons, I can extend her learning by making the questions more abstract.